"Let us now assume, for the sake of argument, that these machines are a genuine possibility, and look at the consequences of constructing them. To do so would of course meet with great opposition, unless we have advanced greatly in religious toleration from the days of Galileo. There would be great opposition from the intellectuals who were afraid of being put out of a job. It is probable though that the intellectuals would be mistaken about this. There would be plenty to do, trying to understand what the machines were trying to say, i.e. in trying to keep one’s intelligence up to the standard set by the machines, for it seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers. There would be no question of the machines dying, and they would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control, in the way that is mentioned in Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon”."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Computer scientists from the United KingdomPhilosophers from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomPeople from LondonCryptographers
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory" (1951), from a BBC radio discussion programme, The ’51 Society.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The "computable" numbers may be described briefly as the real numbers whose expressions as a decimal are calculable b…"
"The "scanned symbol" is the only one of which the machine is... "directly aware". However, by altering its m-configur…"
"Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which…"
"Instruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with computing experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-s…"
"A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine."
"There is a remarkably close parallel between the problems of the physicist and those of the cryptographer. The system…"
"This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be. We have to have some experie…"
"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition."
"The Exclusion Principle is laid down purely for the benefit of the electrons themselves, who might be corrupted (and …"
"We may compare a man in the process of computing a real number to a machine which is only capable of a finite number …"